In Switzerland, three Hindu fundamentalists tried to invoke Agni the fire god to destroy anti-human and children-abusing hate speech. In this quest, they wanted to burn Bibles and Korans, which are loaded with such hate speech, targeting non-believers, women and all manner of other ethnicities and living creatures. The Hindus’ planned religious ceremony was stopped by the police, however, who therefore appear to be guilty of religious discrimination.

Said one of the Hindus, Tetus Leo Panakal:

“I do not want even a single child to come into contact with a Bible or a Koran. What is written in these books is wrong, false and causes nightmares in children.”

Another Hindu, Vijay, stated that “Hinduism is synonymous with non-violence, tolerance and respect for other religions.” (Except, apparently, those religions that practice hate speech and advocate violence against others in their “sacred texts.”)

Their remarks were met with consternation that such an act could provoke “great danger” to the Swiss, as expressed by an Islam expert, Erich Gysling, who said:

“We must avoid at all costs that these books be burned. Otherwise, Switzerland courts great danger.”

Of course, one must wonder what “great danger” that would be, since we’re just talking about religions of peace, as demonstrated so handily by both their histories and these very same sacred texts!

Alas, the ceremony of purging the world of hate speech through the good graces of that most ancient of gods, Agni, who chars by his word, was not to happen, as the Swiss police stepped in an prevented these Hindus from exercising their rights to free expression and religious purification.

Swiss police said Friday they had arrested three persons who had announced their intention to burn a Bible and a Koran in front of the headquarters of the Swiss government in Bern….

In Switzerland, racial or religious discrimination and incitement to violence or crime is considered a misdemeanor punishable by three years in prison.

So, these Hindus were prevented from practicing THEIR religion, which included Agni the fire god ridding the world of hate speech. Perhaps the Swiss police now will be charged with religious discrimination?

18 Comments

Hindus can burn books in their own private domains until they get smoked out or the fire trucks arrive, whichever comes first. Why do they have to incite the chaos of the Indian partition in the capital of Switzerland?

The sooner people stop irrationally treating books like this as sources of axiomatic and superlative revelation, the more peaceful this planet will become.

Swiss police arrest…..Books have nothing to do with peace … in fact they have been a fuel for dissension and turmoil. 💡 I have a Quoran and am going to save money on toilet paper, starting tonight. Books are meant to be burned or garbaged at some point. That point can be now. 😆 😛

What is it with religion & book burning? Do they really think they can kill ideas with fires?

Still on an ongoing anti-PC rant here. The theologians of Political Correctness had a rough day on this one. One minority doubling as a religious group conflicted with another. We learned here in the ’08 election that (half) black male trumps white woman. In Europe Muslim male trumps homosexual (they routinely call for their deaths & get away with it), woman, & Jew. Now we know that in Switzerland Islam trumps Hindu.

The take-home message our PC theologians have given us here is that when lobbying for special privileges it helps to have an established history of rioting & murder when you don’t get your way. If Hindus had the threat of hysterical violence behind their complaints they’d have Europe wrapped around their finger. Too bad they chose to assimilate & treat their fellow citizens with respect instead.

The followers of most religions engage in pronouncing the merits of their own religion and the demerits of other religions. Atheists do this too — it’s called ‘freedom of expression’, and it’s a quite normal and generally healthy attribute of a free society. That’s how religions — and all ideas — compete in the ‘marketplace of ideas’. If you illegalize the criticism of religions, you eliminate debate and you impede intellectual and social progress.

Usually when a government steps in to censor freedom of speech, the government shows favoritism toward one side of the debate while restricting the speech of the other side. Whenever a government censors freedom of speech, government has almost always chosen a ‘favorite party’ that it seeks to protect from legitimate criticism.

Since flag and effigy burning have been recognized as a legitimate form of protest by many nations, it seems inconsistent and unfair that book burning should be banned. It should be far more a concern to us when public libraries ban controversial books than when partisan protesters burn books in the streets.

The Hindu protesters who want to publicly burn the [i]Bible[/i] and the [i]Koran[/i] in Switzerland claim that Hinduism is a ‘nonviolent’ religion and that Christianity and Islam are violent. [Why didn’t the Hindu protesters mention Judaism as a violent religion, along with Christianity and Islam?] Hinduism’s most revered scripture, the [i]Bhagavad Gita[/i], contains a lengthy speech by the Hindu god Krishna which is intended to persuade Prince Arjuna to participate in a ‘just war’. The Hindu scriptures are full of justifications for violence, as well as arguments for non-violence. As regards the justification of violence or of non-violence, the Hindu scriptures are a mixed bag.

One of the Hindu protesters in Switzerland, Tetus Leo Panakal, has a personal name which is not Hindu, but Western. I wonder what Panakal’s background is, since he has a Western personal name, yet he claims to be a Hindu partisan. The surname Panakal or Panakkal is common in the Indian state of Kerala, and many Christian Keralites have that surname.

There is a difference between “Just War” and Unjust war, of course. A “Just War” is a conflict fought by a party who aims to correct a historical wrong committed against it. The Vedas do not tell readers to massacre those of other religions in the form of human sacrifice as the Abrahamic religions do.

Not all violence is the same. Going by your logic, there would be no Hindus left had all accepted the Buddhist principle of Ahisma. All the pacifist Buddhist regions of India are now Islamic today, as the non-violent types did not feel a need to defend their faith, and now they are raving and foaming at the mouth Islamists.Acceptance is one thing, however tolerating your enemies is another. Interesting to note that the patrons of Ahisma and Buddhism who let their enemies return on multiple occasions to fight against them eventually lost and their domains were converted to the violent, genocidal and blood lusting faith of Islam.

“Pankal” is a Sanskrit name. There are even people and sites in Islamic Indonesia with those names to this day, dating from their historic Hindu-Buddhist culture.

Jon, you neglect to mention the violence against low castes sanctioned in various Hindu texts, which can be classified as “hate speech” and “anti-human” also. Even the Vedas enshrine discrimination against the “avarnas”(casteless). The author of this blog and the wannabe Bible/Koran burners cannot be unaware of this, but choose to pretend that Hindu texts have nothing but love toward all. The caste violence in India has to be seen to be believed, without any assistance from the “hate speech” of the Bible or Koran. The Vedas cannot refer to “other religions” since there was no particular religion at the time going by a given name. There is no religion that is free from fault, or from “anti-human hate speech” in one form or another whether as written or as practiced by the alleged followers, and Hinduism is no exception.

That makes sense, kiran. If Tetus Leo Panakal were more familiar with the Hindu and Vedic scriptures, he would know that they contain a complex mixture of sometimes contradictory viewpoints on various subjects. While the Hindu scriptures present many excellent arguments for tolerance and pacifism, they also contain many examples of justification for violent acts. The same may be said of the Bible and the Koran.

I personally think that the Hindu scriptures contain a great deal of admirable philosophy, but when referencing the Hindu scriptures one needs to distinguish between the admirable philosophy, the tales of mythological astro-theology, and the Tribalistic social norms contained within those scriptures.

A lot of the violence that occurs in the Bible and in the Hindu scriptures, as in all the world’s mythological traditions, is actually a metaphorical description of astronomical phenomenon. Often the world’s mythologies present astronomical cycles as tribal or national conflicts.

intolerenceIt’s a paradox, but it’s true. While tolerance is the hall mark of a civilized society, that society must also be staunchly opposed to[i] intolerance[/i]. Where does that leave us in this story? It sounds like the Hindus here are quite aware of this twisty moral paradigm. Christianity overcame the Ancient pagan world by claiming to be discriminated against, all the while pillaging and murdering and destroying millenia of learning,finally plunging Europe into the Dark Ages. There was no shortage of book-burning by Christians then or now. We could drastically reduce our dependence on fossil fuels this winter by heating our homes with burning Bibles and Korans, thereby also loosening the grip of the Bilderberg power elite as well. Thank the Gideons for a free source of fuel.

Good points Greg. Europe doesn’t cherish freedom of expression nearly as much as we do, by & large. I really don’t see what these Hindus thought they’d accomplish outside of generating hostility toward their community but I’m not happy to see them being denied their full say.

Whatever unpleasant passages there may be in the Hindu scriptures still don’t add up to the hate & violence in the books they were trying to burn & judging from the respective histories of the three religions in question, they probably do have plenty of room to talk. It’s too bad that they had to make their point by taking a page out of their opponent’s history (pun unintended) by burning books. Catholic & Nazi images spring to mind.

Just the same, if the quiet, tolerant, generally friendly Hindu community wishes to raise their voice on the issues of religion’s intolerance they certainly deserve to have their say. I expect that their civilized composure will make for a wonderful contrast with the rage & hysterics of Islam. I’m guessing Christianity will be a no-show in those parts.

“Whatever unpleasant passages there may be in the Hindu scriptures still don’t add up to the hate & violence in the books they were trying to burn & judging from the respective histories of the three religions in question, they probably do have plenty of room to talk. “

Not Really. Judaism, Christianity and Islam have plenty of room to talk, however even Zoroastrian, let alone Hinduism have always been very benign in comparison. Holy War is a feature present only in the Abrahamic faiths.

Burning Books? Have you ever heard of Rome? Library of Alexandria perchance? The history of Christianity and Islam are ink-soaked with book burnings. Christians destroyed all Pagan and Zoroastrian houses of worship during the Christianization of Rome, and destroyed their texts as well. In fact the Ancient Egyptian religions which had been practiced by various Roman groups had virtually been unknown in custom until the Rosetta Stone provided an opportunity for scientists and archaeologists to directly investigate the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The Christian Nazis were only following in the footsteps of their ancestors, after all.

bible & quran in AgniAll problems of man in these many centuries come in truth from the active presence of his sworn enemy namely jesus in his midst in the guise of friend and saviour!http://www.666live.ch

Hindus burning Kuran and BibleIt is interesting certainly. In India, there is a saying in Hindu parlance, “A recent Mullah (Muslim convert) practices or tends to his religious orgy more fiercely and vehemently”. Perhaps s/he wants to show s/his loyaltymore than others, perhaps to the “Bosses” who were responsible for that conversion. Perhaps the motive may be hidden in the behind the scene covert benefits in terms of materialism and etc.

Looking at this photo/picture, he appears to be a coloured fellow who may have just re-converted, not in his own life but speaking ancestrally.

He certainly adds another “colour to the rainbow” of this raging religious controversy and polemics.

I have avoided deliberately any reference to Hindu scriptures here to avoid any unnecessary further addition of fuel to the fire. But adding that this silly act could have better been avoided and I am sure, this fellow will not attract any Taliban style Hurrahs from any Hindu organisation or at least I hope so.

” While the Hindu scriptures present many excellent arguments for tolerance and pacifism, they also contain many examples of justification for violent acts. The same may be said of the Bible and the Koran.”

No, it cannot. In the Koran and the Bible disciples are given instructions to eliminate all non-Christians or non-Muslims on the basis of religion. Although, excepts are made by Christians for Jews and by Muslims for Jews and Christians (predecessor religions). Krishna takes no sides in the Mahabharata epic. Only those deserving of judgement should be punished in accordance with karma. There is nothing in any Hindu text which tells Hindus to murder non-Hindus. The Hindu Texts only preach dharma. That is it is based upon the duty of every Hindu to act on his behalf against wrongs such as murder, rape, theft, etc.

Hinduism is a plurastic faith, which allows for many different interpretations. Hindus will not force all Hindus to act by a certain manner. You cannot claim the same for Christianity and Islam as both religions have long histories of persecuting heretics continuing on to this very day. Some of the ancient Hindu texts have come to be misinterpreted. That is however correct.

While Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and the ancient Egyptian religions may have been derived from astro-theology, the same sort of parallel is not found within Hinduism.

Prior to the arrival of Islam in India, the caste system was fluid. One person of a certain caste could easily become a member of another. The ossification really only occurred during the Islamic conquest, when castes were hardened on account of the disruption of society and the Islamic onslaught against the kufr. Keep in mind that caste is more of a cultural phenomenon rather than a religious one, even Christians and Muslims in the Indian Subcontinent (including Pakistan) maintain castes. All countries in the world have classes of sorts.

The Castes in India, to some extent, are representative of a division of labour as it had existed in ancient times. Divisions exist in all significant large groups – whether a group represents a nation, or a county, a religion, a state, or even a Club. People tend to be drawn towards and intermix with others having similar means and lifestyles.

I’m not saying that Hindu scriptures are all necessarily about love and peace, they are not. They also mention that one must confront his enemy with force if need be. That is not ahisma.

There is no record of holy war prior to the arrival of the three abrahamic religions on this earth. In Greco-Roman times, you could worship any god or no god, as you pleased. There was free inquiry, free thinking and free-debate, that is until Constantine introduced Christianity as a state religion and simultaneously paved the way for Feudalism in Europe.

TruthJesus will be coming back soon then everyone will have to face their Maker. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” It will all come out in the end. I hope the best for all. This fighting and burning of religious books is barbaric and uncalled for.

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